The Market Cap Of 10 Of Our Favorite Fictional Companies

Industry: Confectioneries

Location: Unspecified town in England

Strengths: Unique product line, rock-bottom labor costs

Weakness: Production bottleneck, labor violations, industrial espionage 

Market cap: $750 million

Share price: $0.55
 

The pitch:

After the controversial mass layoffs amid accusations of industrial espionage against its main competitor, Wonka Industries is poised to make a major comeback. While the eccentricities of the owner may stay the hand of some investors, those with more risk tolerance would do well to get in on the ground floor, because this great glass elevator is about to take off!
 

The small print:

The real-life inspiration for the Wonka Chocolate Factory was author Roald Dahl's childhood experiences with Cadbury, a British confectionery company that was acquired by Kraft in 2010; the value of the company was set at $19 billion, with each share worth about $11.

With only a single production facility, Wonka Industries might have serious issues meeting consumer demand. Even with his largely uncompensated workforce, it's unlikely Willy Wonka could compete with the larger manufacturers and would almost certainly be bought out. 

Industries: Research, Entertainment 

Location: Costa Rica 

Strengths: Unique visitor experience 

Weaknesses: Massive operating costs, security concerns

Market Cap: $25 billion

Share price: $320
 

The pitch:

The naysayers said it was impossible, but the visionary mind behind the InGen Corporation, John Hammond, proved the doubters wrong with the successful cloning of long-extinct dinosaurs. With investors wondering just how this pipe dream could possibly be monetized, the answer is at hand - the world's greatest theme park. This is an investment opportunity 65 million years in the making!
 

The small print:

The park is on the fictional Isla Nublar off the coast of Costa Rica, with a total area of roughly 30 square miles. If the island was real, it would be worth about $450 million, based on the costs of much smaller islands in the area. The expense of fitting out the island and actually running it must be astronomical. Just think about the daily feeding costs for a moment. The lions (around 400 pounds each) cost about $14,000 annually to feed at Utica Zoo in New York. An adult Tyrannosaurus rex is about 35-50 times heavier, so just keeping the star attractions sated would be ridiculously pricey. 

There's obviously no real-life equivalent to a dinosaur safari park, but if we use the holding company for Sea World and Busch Gardens as a yardstick, we can at least form an idea. With a buyout price of $2.7 billion in 2009, it's fair to say that Jurassic Park would probably blow Sea World out of the water in terms of market cap. The hype surrounding the park would generate a huge amount of initial interest, but the operating costs and major risks involved make it seem like a pretty bad investment. As Jeff Goldblum's character, Ian Malcolm, famously said: 

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Industries: Everything 

Location: Fairfield, NJ

Strengths: A mind-boggling catalog of products, outstanding delivery services, customer loyalty 

Weakness: A class-action lawsuit waiting to happen, overleveraged 

Market Cap: $3 trillion 

Stock price: $3,500
 

The pitch:

The acme is the point at which something is best, most perfect, or successful. It's a fitting name for the world's No. 1 producer of... well... just about everything you can imagine. The brand's range is such that some people think it stands "a company makes everything." With a fiercely loyal customer base and truly outstanding same-day delivery, ACME should be the main focus of your portfolio. 
 

The small print:

Across the Warner Bros. universe, the ACME name is everywhere. From the labs where Pinky and the Brain hatch nightly plots to take over the world to the many schemes of Wile E. Coyote and the further education of the next generation of toon stars, ACME does absolutely everything. It's possible ACME simply commissions other companies to make its goods, a bit like Costco's Kirkland brand. Either way, we can't imagine the profit margins on some of the more specialized devices would be too lucrative, and that's before factoring in the near-instant delivery service that can seemingly find wily Wile E. in the middle of nowhere. 

The threat of litigation would be ever-present, given the frequent failure of the products to work as intended - perhaps Wile E. Coyote's limitless access to goods is part of a previous settlement. One 2007 estimate put the company's revenue at nearly $349 billion. If ACME's growth mirrors other major corporations in the last 15 years, that number will be significantly higher now. 

Industries: Tech, Defense, Space Exploration & Colonization, Corrections, Manufacturing

Location: Earth

Strengths: Multiple income streams, investment diversity, government connections

Weaknesses: Huge overheads, risky ventures into bioweapons, questionable company culture

Market Cap (at merger): $218 trillion

Share price: $638,000
 

The pitch:

If you have the cash and can overlook some of the more controversial decisions at the executive level, Weyland-Yutani's potential is truly out of this world! This mega-corporation has a huge array of interests - from beer to smart guns - and even the loss of an M-class star freighter detonated for reasons unknown barely made a dent in that year's profit margins. Our analysts indicate some exciting new developments coming from LV-426 that should quiet shareholders' concerns about the long-term viability of the penal colony of Fury 161. 
 

The small print:

Given the enormous amount of money available in off-world mining, in which Weyland-Yutani is heavily involved, it's a wonder the company has much interest in bioweapons at all. In Aliens, we learn the Nostromo is worth $42 million, but that seems like a drastic underestimate if you consider you can pick up a vastly inferior space shuttle for about $28 million today. 

The scope of the company's operations is expanded upon in Aliens, with every aspect of space colonization manufactured and managed by the company. There's an oddly historic precedent with the coordination between the company and the military, a little like the Dutch East India Company. 

In Alien 3 we see yet another venture in the form of the penal colony, but we really have to wonder about the practicalities of the prison at Fury 161. There's just no way that operation could turn a profit if you consider the small population and how expensive supplying it every six months would truly be. 

The massive market cap comes from the expanded lore; supposedly the merger of Weyland (inspired by Leyland Motors) and Yutani (very loosely based on Toyota) saw the stock value soar to record levels on the planetary stock exchange. Given the huge collection of business interests, seen and implied, it probably just about adds up. 

Industry: Pharmaceuticals

Location: Worldwide

Strengths: High consumer trust, diversity of investments, a market leader in research

Weakness: Difficulty in enforcing containment protocols, huge overheads, risky ventures

Market Cap: $150 billion

Share price: $25
 

The pitch:

A world leader in cutting-edge medical research and pharmaceuticals, the future is certainly bright for Umbrella. The company's latest earnings report promises big things are coming out of the state-of-the-art facility in Raccoon City. 
 

The small print:

Umbrella’s value would have been in line with other major pharmaceuticals at the time (1998). The company made highly effective medicines - any veteran Resident Evil fan would know the incredible efficacy of the first-aid spray. The franchise has made some references to other medicines made by the company, but none quite as lucrative as Pfizer's little blue pill.

With extensive research facilities around the world and its own paramilitary forces, Umbrella had some truly gigantic overheads to contend with. Maybe if the company had focused on male pattern baldness and impotence instead of the T-virus, its long-term prospects would have been much better. 

Industries: Banking, construction & international development

Location: Tokyo (main office), Los Angeles, CA

Strengths: International connections, dynamic and resourceful workforce 

Weakness: High turnover at the executive level, security concerns  

Market Cap: $35 billion

Share price: $35
 

The pitch:

With a new office recently opened in Los Angeles, and a lucrative development contract secured in Indonesia, the only way is up for the Nakatomi Corporation. Get in now before you miss out. 
 

The small print: 

At the time the first Die Hard is set (1988), Japanese conglomerates were dominating the stock market. The value of Nakatomi Corporation is based on those highly successful ventures.

The movie offers a few clues about the firm's interests and assets, such as the model of the Indonesian project and the mention of $640 million in bonds held in the plaza. The estimated market cap is roughly in line with one of the larger Japanese corporations at the time. Those heady days of the late '80s did not last, however.